Practical tips for customising the MT4 Market Watch display: adding columns, managing pairs, saving sets, and enabling a compact pop-up view.
Customising the Market Watch display in MT4
This article explains how to tailor the MT4 Market Watch display to suit your trading preferences and improve market visibility.
How to customise the Market Watch display in MT4
In MT4, exchange rates are monitored via the Market Watch window. The default display offers a selection of currency pairs along with their Bid (sell) price and Ask (buy) price. However, you can tailor this display in various ways.
Adding or removing currency pairs in MT4
To add currency pairs to the default list or remove pairs you don’t use, right-click in the Market Watch window and select “Symbols”.
This opens a list of all available currency pairs.
Pairs with a yellow icon on the left are the currently displayed ones, while those with a grey icon are hidden.
Double-clicking a pair toggles its visibility.
Note: Currency pairs currently opened on charts cannot be hidden. To display a chart for a specific pair, it must first be visible in the Market Watch window.
You can also right-click and select “Show All” to display every available pair, or “Hide All” to hide all except those currently open on charts.
Adding or removing columns in MT4
The default display only shows the Bid and Ask prices. You can add more data as follows:
- Spread: Displays the spread for each pair (Note: in MT4, a value of 1 equals 0.1 pips)
- High/Low: Shows the highest and lowest prices of the day
- Time: Indicates the time of the last quote update
To adjust column visibility, right-click in the Market Watch window and select the items to show or hide.
Active items are highlighted by a tick.
Saving currency pair sets in MT4
Market Watch allows you to create and save customised sets of instruments so you can switch between them efficiently. For example, you might create a ‘Majors’ group or a ‘Commodities’ group.
Right-click in the Market Watch window and select ‘Sets’.
Click ‘Save As...’ and name your set (e.g., ‘USD_Pairs’).
To load a set later, right-click, go to ‘Sets’, and select your saved file from the list.
Using the pop-up display in Market Watch
If you're working on other tasks and just want to monitor exchange rates, you can use the pop-up feature.
Right-click in the Market Watch window and select the option “Popup prices” to display real-time prices in a separate window.
This provides a simplified view without disrupting your main screen.
This article and its contents are intended for educational purposes only and should not be considered trading advice.
